I am a bestselling author and a freelance journalist who concentrates on man’s struggle to keep the state in balance with the American dream. My latest book is The Future of the Gun. I am also the author of The Ultimate Man's Survival Guide. My website is www.frankminiter.com. I am a former senior editor at Outdoor Life and a former executive editor for American Hunter (an NRA magazine). I still write for the NRA's publications and I am a "field editor" for American Hunter. This is a purely gratuitous title, but one I'm proud of, as I am a life member of the NRA. I mention all this because Media Matters has been saying I'm secretly an "NRA employee" to attack my credibility on the gun issues. When they can't handle the facts they attack the messenger.

Is Rick Santorum a Closet Animal Rights Activist?

The question posed by this headline is buzzing in blogs in the agricultural industry and sportsmen’s rights groups. The anxiety stems from Rick Santorum’s backing (and, when in the U.S. Senate, sponsoring) bills animal-rights groups are advocating, but that agricultural groups and sportsmen’s organizations oppose.

In one example, in 2001 then Sen. Santorum (R-PA) introduced S. 1478, the Puppy Protection Act of 2001, with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). This act intended to improve conditions for dogs at “puppy mills” by addressing socialization and breeding issues, and by creating a “three strikes and you’re out” system for violators of the Animal Welfare Act.

“The bill will require commercial breeders to provide socialization for dogs at their facilities,” Santorum said at the time.

Santorum did more than back animal-rights legislation; he even held a press conference in 1995 in which he was pictured alongside Wayne Pacelle, an animal-rights activist who now heads the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). For those of you who don’t know HSUS, its positions are similar to PETA’s and no, they don’t run your local pet shelter; in fact, HSUS doesn’t run a single pet shelter in the U.S. and only gives about one percent of its money to pet shelters. What HSUS does is spend its money on anti-farming and anti-hunting campaigns.

A 1995 issue of Animal People, an animal-rights newspaper, reported that: “August 10 [1995] dawned bright for the Humane Society of the U.S., as newspapers across the country carried a photo of HSUS director of legislative affairs Wayne Pacelle and Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) decrying puppy mills at a press conference….”

The Puppy Protection Act of 2001 failed, but is now alive again in Congress as the “Puppy Uniform Protection and Safety Act.” If passed, and signed by say, a President Santorum, the bill would put federal bureaucrats in charge of dog breeders by mandating the age at which dogs can be bred. It would also stipulate the number of litters a dog could have. A bureaucrat would even need to know how many puppies a breeder sells.

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the pet industry and the hunting community (many small breeders specialize in trained hunting dogs) have argued that whether or not a dog should be bred should be decided by a partnership between an owner and that owner’s veterinarian, not by some distant federal bureaucrat.

Santorum’s Puppy Protection Act also had had a nasty bite. It had the “three-strikes” provision that established mandatory revocation of licenses for anyone who committed three violations of the Animal Welfare Act during an eight-year period. As written, the legislation would have applied to all individual agencies licensed under the Animal Welfare Act, not only puppy mill dealers.

This position by Santorum wasn’t an anomaly. In fact, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) gave Santorum an 80-percent approval rating in 2006.

Now politics may make for strange bedfellows, but HSUS is an exceedingly odd group for Santorum to get high marks from; especially when you consider that in 2006 (and in other years) Santorum was named a “Friend of the Farm Bureau” by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau (PFB). This award is given annually to members of Congress who vote in favor of issues considered to be beneficial to the Farm Bureau.

Gary Swan, director of government affairs and communications for the PFB, says, “We haven’t looked closely at his animal-rights positions, but when Santorum was in office we always found him to be helpful to our interests.”

Making this juxtaposition of views even stranger, in 2006 Santorum voted to stop horse slaughtering by defunding mandatory federal inspections of horse-processing facilities. This position might at first sound humane; after all, the idea that Black Beauty and Seabiscuit can be killed when their racing days are done so their meat can be sent to dog-food companies would bring tears to any little girl’s eyes. However, the truth is that ending horse slaughtering was inhumane.

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Mr. Minter, you are either buying into the Factory Farm/Breeder/Puppy Mill/Hunting Lobby lies or deliberately misleading your readers about The Humane Society of the United States. They don’t claim to run pet shelters (many shelters contain Humane Society in the name, but are not affiliated), nor do they spend money on anti-farming and hunting campaigns. They spend money on anti-factory farming campaigns where cruel methods are employed such as confining baby cows for their entire lives to dark, indoor wooden restraining devices not even big enough to turn around or lie down, they are anti-stuffing egg-laying hens into cages with not enough room to spread their wings, and they are against gestation crates too small for female breeding pigs to turn around, in which they are forced to lie on their stomachs their entire adult lives (3 to 4 years) until they are transported long distances to slaughter plants with no food or water. HSUS is also against cruel, captive (trophy hunting). But to say they spend their money on anti-hunting and anti-farming campaigns is an outright lie.

You might as well save your breath regarding The HSUS and being anti-hunting. Frank Miniter wrote the book on that issue. ‘The Politically Incorrect Guide to Hunting’ which I love, but unfortunately he isn’t educated on the details of puppy mills or U.S. horse slaughter for human consumption by the French and Belgians. I’m with you Melissa on the issue of giving God’s animals in factory farms the ability to have more space so they can at least move.

Spare us the HSUS propaganda. The Humane Society of the US sells itself as an animal welfare group, complete with ads showing pathetic animals on the streets being “rescued” with viewers’ donations, but almost none of those donations go to animal welfare or shelters.

Most of the money the HSUS brings in goes into the pockets and retirement funds of HSUS employees.

Melissa: You are completely wrong. HSUS is out to destroy animal agriculture. That is why they have and continue to support bills that legislate how farmers can raise and care for their animals. The organization’s end goal – and Mr. Purcell himself has said this – is to end animal agriculture. My husband and I farm and raise cattle in Central Kansas and outside of the EPA, our biggest enemy is HSUS. Have you actually seen any of these “horrible” animal practices that HSUS advertises? Farmers care for their animals because they are our livelihood. Harming our animals only harms our business and our way of life. Your entire comment is a contradiction because you spell out all of the campaigns HSUS is involved in to change farming and agricultural practices but then say HSUS does not spend its money on anti-farming campaigns. They spend millions of dollars each year to try to tell me and others in agriculture how to do our jobs.

Do you use gestation crates, veal pens or battery cages, and do you supply McDonald’s, etc.? You must be aware of the actual percentage of U.S. meat and eggs that come from family farms, right? Just because you are doing it correctly and humanely, surely you’re aware of how many aren’t.

Katie & Derek, Do you use gestation crates, veal pens or battery cages, and do you supply McDonald’s, etc.? You must be aware of the actual percentage of U.S. meat and eggs that come from family farms, right? Just because you are doing it correctly and humanely, surely you’re aware of how many aren’t.

Katie & Derek, do you use gestation crates, veal pens and battery cages, and do you supply McDonald’s, etc.? You must be aware of the actual percentage of U.S. meat and eggs that come from family farms, right? Just because you are doing it correctly and humanely, surely you’re aware of how many aren’t.

Hey Melissa. I’m glad to see that you and many people are so interested in farming and animal welfare. Have you ever been to a pig farm or cattle farm, or choose whichever animal you might be thinking of. I know there are some bad ones out there. I invite you to go talk to some of the people who own or operate those buildings. You might find that they care about the animals. Then again you might find that they don’t. I absolutely think that people need to be aware of what goes on behind the scenes before the food gets on their plate or the pet enters there home. They also need to understand why the producer does what they do. As long as the facts are right and straight from the source I think people will be able to make an informed decision. If they see methods they think to be cruel, find a source that supports your ideals and pay for that. If we would encourage people to connect with the producers or other parts of the chain it would lead to steady improvement in each industry. The only issue I have with HSUS is that they try to use legislation more than information to push what they deem as acceptable. Conservatives, lets leave the government out of this because when you use regulation to target “bad people” in industries it usually hurts everybody. Then it has the effect of raising prices higher and/or importation from cheaper sources, like Mexico, and their welfare standards are far below ours. Just a thought.

Also, I background cattle and I know I care about them because it is my livelihood. I hate to see them sick or suffering in anyway so I do everything I can to make them comfortable. Honestly if the cattle aren’t happy or healthy then they don’t gain weight very well adding insult to injury. Melissa, sadly I haven’t been in a modern Pog building, but I know many people who own and operate them and they care about their animals too. I’d love to ask them some questions for you as I’d like to go and look at their places to see how they operate. Any questions you have for me would be great as well.

Hey Melissa. I’m glad to see that you and many people are so interested in farming and animal welfare. Have you ever been to a pig farm or cattle farm, or choose whichever animal you might be thinking of. I know there are some bad ones out there. I invite you to go talk to some of the people who own or operate those buildings. You might find that they care about the animals. Then again you might find that they don’t. I absolutely think that people need to be aware of what goes on behind the scenes before the food gets on their plate or the pet enters there home. They also need to understand why the producer does what they do. As long as the facts are right and straight from the source I think people will be able to make an informed decision. If they see methods they think to be cruel, find a source that supports your ideals and pay for that. If we would encourage people to connect with the producers or other parts of the chain it would lead to steady improvement in each industry. The only issue I have with HSUS is that they try to use legislation more than information to push what they deem as acceptable. Conservatives, lets leave the government out of this because when you use regulation to target “bad people” in industries it usually hurts everybody. Then it has the effect of raising prices higher and/or importation from cheaper sources, like Mexico, and their welfare standards are far below ours. Just a thought.

Also, I background cattle and I know I care about them because it is my livelihood. I hate to see them sick or suffering in anyway so I do everything I can to make them comfortable. Honestly if the cattle aren’t happy or healthy then they don’t gain weight very well adding insult to injury. Melissa, sadly I haven’t been in a modern Pig building, but I know many people who own and operate them and they care about their animals too. I’d love to ask them some questions for you as I’d like to go and look at their places to see how they operate. Any questions you have for me would be great as well.

Hey Melissa. I’m glad to see that you and many people are so interested in farming and animal welfare. Have you ever been to a pig farm or cattle farm, or choose whichever animal you might be thinking of. I know there are some bad ones out there. I invite you to go talk to some of the people who own or operate those buildings. You might find that they care about the animals. Then again you might find that they don’t. I absolutely think that people need to be aware of what goes on behind the scenes before the food gets on their plate or the pet enters there home. They also need to understand why the producer does what they do. As long as the facts are right and straight from the source I think people will be able to make an informed decision. If they see methods they think to be cruel, find a source that supports your ideals and pay for that. If we would encourage people to connect with the producers or other parts of the chain it would lead to steady improvement in each industry. The only issue I have with HSUS is that they try to use legislation more than information to push what they deem as acceptable. Conservatives, lets leave the government out of this because when you use regulation to target “bad people” in industries it usually hurts everybody. For animals it would have the effect of raising prices higher and/or importation from cheaper sources, like Mexico, and their welfare standards are far below ours. Just a thought.

Also, I background cattle and I know I care about them because it is my livelihood. I hate to see them sick or suffering in anyway so I do everything I can to make them comfortable. Honestly if the cattle aren’t happy or healthy then they don’t gain weight very well adding insult to injury. Melissa, sadly I haven’t been in a modern Pig building, but I know many people who own and operate them and they care about their animals too. I’d love to ask them some questions for you as I’d like to go and look at their places to see how they operate. Any questions you have for me would be great as well.